Candy Cranks

MIT’s SENSEable City Laboratory has brought technology used on the racetrack to your bike. The project is called the Copenhagen Wheel and features a back hub that captures kinetic energy generated when you brake. The energy is stored in batteries in the hub until you need it – like when you’re pushing up that last hill. When hooked up to your iPhone, the Copenhagen Wheel does even more:

By using a series of sensors and a Bluetooth connection to the user’s iPhone, which can be mounted on the handlebars, the wheel can monitor the bicycle’s speed, direction and distance traveled, as well as collect data on air pollution and even the proximity of the rider’s friends.

The team also added an anti-theft system that can text message you to location of your bike if it ever gets stolen. So smart!

What do you think? Would you ride the Copenhagen wheel?